I-15 CORE Selected as National Top-Ten Project; Now Up to Public Vote

In August I-15 CORE was picked as one of the top 10 finalists for the 2013 America’s Transportation Award sponsored by the American Association of State and Highway Transportation Officials (AASHTO), AAA and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

As a finalist, I-15 CORE is eligible for either the Grand Prize, which is awarded by a panel of judges, or the People’s Choice award, which is based on public voting. The winner receives a $10,000 donation for a local charity, and UDOT has selected United Way of Utah County for the donation. United Way of Utah County works to create lasting improvements in the community in the areas of education, income and health.

I-15 CORE was completed in December 2012 as the fastest billion-dollar highway project built in U.S. history. The project included the widening and reconstruction of 24 miles of I-15 from Lehi to Spanish Fork and was $260 million under budget.

United Way of Utah County seeks to help those most vulnerable in the community, focusing on three areas that are building blocks of a good life: education, income and health.

This is a guest post written by I-15 CORE communications team member Christina Davis.

Update: Thanks to everyone who voted. We didn’t win the people’s choice award but did win the Grand Prize and $10,000 for United Way of Utah County. Congratulations I-15 CORE team and United Way!

Utah’s I-15 Core is wonder full, except for the 7200 south intersections and onramps. It’s not wide enough the west side of 7200 south. It would be nice if the was set up like 9000 and 5300 south. After all U-Dot did raise the Rail Road above 9000 South but didn’t bother to widen the crossings under 7200 south. Now with all the construction in that area the morning and evening traffic is at times unbearable.
Living in that area I would give U-Dot a C- for their contributions to the I-15 planning. I sent an email to U-Dot several times before about this problem and the only response was, “You can always use 9000 or 5300 south”.

There are plans to widen this section of 7200 South from I-15 to just west of Bingham Junction (about 700 West). It will be done as soon as funding can be identified. So far, we are in the concept phase working to determine how much it will cost. As you can imagine such an undertaking will be substantial; three lanes in each direction with sidewalks and retaining walls are envisioned. Railroad lines in the area also complicate this project. There are two old railroad bridges that would need to be changed without disrupting daily use. One of them is owned by Union Pacific (a separate entity from UDOT) and the other one is owned by UTA (another separate agency). Union Pacific alone has three tracks on their bridge and runs trains on them constantly. UTA’s bridge carries a TRAX line out the west side of the valley. There is one more bridge in the area and it is also owned by UTA but it is newer and was built wide enough to already accommodate this long range planned improvement.

The America’s Transportation Awards are open to all 50 states. Nominees are typically separated by region. You can find the winners of past years on AASTHO’s awards website: https://americastransportationawards.org/